I Love the Pictures!!!

I do not have any names but there is someone who works with these young men at the MTC who went to Finland 23 years ago.  This week while we were at the Salt Lake Temple lights I received an email with this picture.  The caption on the letter said that these fine young men are doing well with the Finnish language.  It absolutely made my day to get this picture.  I miss seeing my son and an occasional picture is AWESOME!  Don't they look great!

His letters are great.  He said he has many, many meetings.  He also spends whatever free time he has working out.  He said he is the champ at the rowing machine.  That kid...always so competitive!  He sounds so happy.  One of his favorite things is receiving letters.  He loves to hear from everyone.  We have made a point for the whole family to each write a letter to him each week.  I need to keep everyone doing that because he really loves hearing from home.

If we thought his spelling was bad before he left, it is horrible now.  Apparently the vowels are completely different in Finnish and he struggles to write in English.  He write an email home each week and a nice long letter as well.

I just wanted everyone to know that Michael is doing great.  He is loving the MTC and loving being a missionary.  He is extremely appreciative of his mom and dad, which is awesome.  He raves about how well he said he was raised and continually apologizing for anything he may have done growing up.  That part is really fun!  I know he misses home but I also know he is exactly where he wants to be doing exactly what he wants to be doing.  Thanks for loving and caring for him!

Happy in the MTC!

We were fortunate enough to have a couple in our ward work at the MTC.  They saw Elder G and gave him a hug for us.  That was actually a very sweet blessing for me...it meant so much to me. She went back the next week to work at the MTC with her camera and took this picture for us of Michael with his companion.  He looks so good!  He is a District Leader for his group and spends hours in meetings as well as other classes.  I asked him to tell me about what his days and duties are like so hopefully I will hear about that in his next letter.

I have been asking him for advice as to what to study.  He has told me to study the "Preach my Gospel" manual.  He said to start with the Charity section in chapter six.

Elder Golling is doing great.  He is studying very hard and is teaching lessons in Finnish now.  His letters are mixed with English and Finnish.  On one of his emails he went from English to Finnish in mid sentence.  He was in a really big hurry when he emailed and I don't even know if he did that. He said his spelling has gotten really bad.  It wasn't that good to begin with.  

In his spare time at the MTC he is working out very hard.  He is a very physical guy.  He has mastered the rowing machine and is apparently the champ at it.  He has lost inches but is gaining in muscle weight.

He has never been so happy before.  Our friend told us that he just glows of the spirit and is everything a missionary should be.  We are so happy for him!

He really did go to Los Angeles to get his visa.  He and his companions flew to LA and back in a day.  They had lunch in Beverly Hills and said he saw some really "sick" cars there.

He misses his friends and family but he is exactly where he wants to be.  Hopefully I will post again soon.
 

First Letter Home

I did not have a new picture so this is a picture we took the Sunday of his farewell.

This was the picture we took of him modeling his new P coat, he loves that thing...Hope it is warm enough!

We received our first letter from Elder Golling (finally!).  I know it has not been that long but when Monday came and went and we did not hear from him I was sad about that.  Anyway, turns out his Pday (preparation day to do laundry, email home, go to the temple, etc) is on Wednesday so he cannot email home until tomorrow.  Anyway...his letter was great.

I forgot to mention that the day Michael left we had to take him to the doctor because his throat looked scary to say the least.  So, the culture was negative for strep but the doctor went ahead and gave him an antibiotic.  It turns out that he got some sort of itchy rash and he was getting worse.  He went to the MTC doctor and they drew blood.  He has mono!  Crazy!  It has not slowed him down at all.

Elder Golling is loving the MTC.  He was made District Leader.  There are four missionaries total that are going to Finland, three young men and one young woman.  His companionship is the three young men.  He is learning the language but I will quote his letter to let you know how that is going,

"The language is absolutely ridiculously hard.....I feel like my brain has been scrambled but slowly my mind is growing back and pieces come together."

He says that he can pray, bear testimony and say hi and bye and how are you in Finnish now.  He loves the language and the way it is organized.  He says it is a beautiful language.

He is extremely happy and so glad to be on his mission.  His letter was wonderful and he sounds great.  A couple of his teachers know some of his friends and he thought that was great.  Oh, also, he says the food is great and he can eat as many bananas and he wants!

Please keep him in your prayers that he gets well and learns the language.  Thanks for supporting Elder Golling with your thoughts and prayers!

First Day

Welcome to Elder Golling's blog.  We dropped Elder Golling off at the MTC this afternoon at 1:00 pm.  He will be serving a two year mission in Finland for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  While we shared the last few hours with Michael we crossed passed with several other families around town doing the same thing.  Before taking him to the MTC we stopped off at the Provo Temple for pictures.  There were so many missionaries there with their families.  There was a real excitement in the air.  Elder Golling ran into a friend that he knew from Boy's State who was checking in at the same time as him.  When we pulled up to the MTC they directed us to a curb sign number where we were to stop.  The entire, long curb line was dotted with hundreds of missionaries.  Most of those missionaries were waiting as escorts.  But, when we drove up, all those missionaries being dropped off at 1:00 pm were filing out of the cars.  We had just enough time to take his luggage out of the back of the truck, give him a quick hug and he was off with the wave of missionaries.  I did not want him to be sad and I think the excitement that was in the air really took over.  He looked really happy when he walked away.  He told us ahead of time that he was not going to look bad.  He kept saying, "pillar of salt, pillar of salt".  We are so glad that he is so excited for his mission.

He should be at the MTC for two to three months depending on if they change it to a two month stay, then off to Finland.  I will be periodically posting on Facebook for him but will blog as much as possible to keep everyone updated.  Thanks for loving Elder Golling and following his news.  Comment if you would like, we would love to hear from you!